


Iridescence

by Sunvori



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Because I Dunno What The Fuck I'm Doing, Because I Promised Myself I Would, Breaking the Law, Burglary, CopVsRobberAU, Detective!Jongho, Detective!Yunho, Getting Together, Jewelry Thief, M/M, Might Change The Tag To Just Smut If It Ends Up Hot And Heavy, Mild Angst, Mild Smut, Or I'm Going To Try My Damned Hardest To, Past One Sided Yunho/Wooyoung, PsuedoLaw, Psuedoscience, Slow Burn, Slow Updates Because Writing Is HardTM, Swearing, Unreliable Narrator, cat and mouse game, revealed identity, revealed past, uhh, will update tags as I go along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2020-09-25 21:50:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20378668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunvori/pseuds/Sunvori
Summary: Yunho had a lot going for him.He had a roof over his head and a well paying, satisfying job. He might not have been top of his class at the police academy, but he still got assigned to the same station as his best friend Jongho, so there's that. Detective work wasn't what he initially saw himself settling into for the long run, but that's just life.And now, after years of vying for it, Yunho was finally,finally, partnered with Jongho on a case, to track down a jewelry thief who refused to leave any concrete evidence behind.As the pair close in on their thief, will Yunho be able to keep the goals he's worked towards for years as his priority, or will he get swept up in a man that reminded Yunho far too much of a past he put behind him and of a future he never let himself believe he deserved.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Versevere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Versevere/gifts).

> I’d just like to put out there that I have like, Zero Knowledge on what Detectives or Thieves actually Do. So please take that into consideration as you read, since this fic was structured upon minimal research, probably no solid facts and many, "Yeah, sure." statements by me.  
Thank you for your understanding :)
> 
> A Gift for my Sweet, Lovely Versevere, who I was both pleasantly surprised but high key anxious about when I got as my recipient for this. I hope you at least enjoy a bit of it.

It was a silent, cold night. The type that only came around a few rare nights of the year, a stillness to it that held the world and everyone who happened to experience it in a soft sort of refuge from reality. There was a chill in the air, but it didn’t hang heavy or press too deeply into your skin. Early morning fog was just starting to roll over the bed of grass that sat primly in a well kept garden.

A full moon accompanied this night, just as you thought it should, but just barely clung above the horizon, as if it had almost forgotten that it needed to make an appearance. The light casted off from it left shadows so long they sliced the world in two.

The moonlight poured into a large room, one that sat just above the garden, through large and wide windows. It soaked the room in its glow, only broken up by a few statues and furniture pieces that stood here and there, seemingly in random spots around the room. 

A gentle breeze started to make its way through the garden, breaking up the oppressive silence as the leaves in the trees rustled to are fro. The moonlight caught on the shivering trees and cast shadows that played and danced along the marble floor of the room.

The night was old, and the fringes of daybreak were only a couple of hours out when a figure suddenly appeared in the room. It had appeared from a door settled back in a far corner, one that blended seamlessly into the lining and scenery of the room.

The figure walked quickly but silently, leaving out an accompaniment to the melody the leaves had started up as it nearly glided along the polished floors. It didn’t falter once, never stopped to glance at the beauty of a fair woman's bust made of polished quartz or the painting that could still be considered beautiful even though its hues were a muted blue in the moonlight.

The figure only stopped its trek once it had reached the far end of the room. Here, a glass case stretch up against the wall, long in length and held up on an equally long base. It housed an assortment of necklaces, all adorned with different gems and jewels that seemed to both absorb and radiate the moonlight that poured onto them.

Slowly, the figure made its way along the case, only now allowing itself to indulge and take in all that it offered. Its hand skimmed along the top, displacing a thin layer of dust that had settled atop it. The figure rubbed at the dust that collected at the tips of its glove, almost as if it was contemplating just how much of a pity it was that it was even there in the first place.

Its steps finally found home once it reached the dead center of the long glass case, gaze settling onto one particular necklace that was imprisoned inside.

This necklace was like no other. This necklace would have sat across only the fairest of necks, only gracing the presence of those who had known no other life then one held afloat on the backs of others. This necklace was one that really had no place being stuck in a display case, meant to be worn and shown off.

This necklace was made up of none other than diamonds, countless of them. The largest of them all settled as the centerpiece, then the rest tapered off into smaller but no less grand diamonds as it reached the edges. There was barely even a chain to take note of, as the diamonds nearly reached all the way to its ends, just enough of a chain to house the clasps to hold it around the wearer’s neck.

The moonlight that spilled into then out from this necklace was a kaleidoscope of light reflecting off its brilliant cut diamonds.

This necklace only just outshone the numerous others that were trapped in with it, but the placement at the center felt right. This necklace belonged front and center.

The figure licked its bottom lip before sucking it in to chew on as it reached into its inner jacket pocket, retrieving out a small device. It was a thin metal rod, only around thirty centimeters long. On one end housed a suction cup, while the other end held a small ball handle that had a sharp tip at the bottom.

The figure turned its head this way and that, scrutinizing the glass above the center necklace as it brought the suction cup up to its face, licking the surface flatly before pressing it onto the glass. It adjusted the moving mechanism on the other side of the metal rod, until it was satisfied with the position.

Slowly, the figure pressed the point into the glass top with enough force to let out an unpleasant scrape into the quiet of the room as the tip started to revolve around in a circle. Though the sound was unwanted, the figure didn’t even flinch at the sudden break in the silence that shrouded its presence, only pressing on in a haste it didn’t have beforehand.

After only a few rotations, the figure stopped. The dead silence that fell back onto the room cut just as much as the initial disturbance. There was a tilt to the figure’s body now, its shoulders held stiff while its eyes unwavered from its handiwork. There was the oppression of a time limit now weighing heavy on it.

The figure switched its grip on the device so that both hands held it at its suctioned end before tugging up harshly.

The glass stayed firmly in place. The figure’s throat bobbed around swallowed spit as it readjusted its grip before tugging again, only for the device to come off the glass with a loud pop. The figure stumbled back, a tisk on its tongue as it gave the device then the glass a displeased look before suctioning it back into place.

This time, instead of pulling up, the figure gripped the far end of the metal rod in its left hand, then balled its right fist and reared back. It brought its fist down onto the head of the suction end. A small scrape of displeasure from the glass cut through the room, but nothing else happened. The figure then brought its fist down a second time. 

This time, the glass gave away, leaving a ragged hole in its wake, small hairline fractures spindling out from its edges to run along the rest of the glass case top. The figure grinned.

Slowly, it angled its arm carefully to the side, making sure to not accidentally scrape its arm up against the jagged edges as it popped the rod off from the disk, letting the glass fall waywardly off to the side in the case. Once the device was safely secured back in its pocket, the figure reached back in. Delicately, reverently, the figure picked up the necklace, careful not to knock it up against the edges of the hole as it lifted up and out to then rotate it in the moonlight.

With its unoccupied hand, the figure reached back into its jacket, pulling out a small black fabric bag. It laid it out on an undamaged part of the glass case to then smoothly tuck the necklace into it. The figure turned its wrist to glance at its watch before cinching the bag closed and tucking it into its jacket.

It stepped to the left, ready to leave before it gave pause. Almost like it was just now seeing it, the figure's gaze landed on the necklace that laid just to the left of the one that was now secure in its new home. 

This necklace didn’t boast its riches and grandeur like the center necklace had. It only had one gem on it, a large and clear emerald hanging off a gold chain. It sparkled no less in the moonlight as the first necklace did, but its color didn't mix as well.

After only a few seconds, the figure was back at the hole in the case, reaching in and grabbing the second necklace quickly, but with no less care. The figure quickly stowed this one in another of its inner jacket pockets.

The figure was at the wall of windows in no time, now feeling the pressure of the oncoming sunrise. It stepped fast but lightly as it made its way along the wall, rapping a knuckle up against the window panes as it passed. When it had reached the second to last window, the tone of the knock pitched lower. It was here that the figure started to fiddle with the window.

It slid its fingers up against the edges, until its left hand caught onto a nearly indistinguishable latch. It pulled it up and shouldered the heavy window open. The outside breeze and smell of dew rushed in as the figure leapt. The window thunked closed and the night easily settled back into what it once was, as if the figure had never disturbed it in the first place.

\---◈---

Yunho stepped out from the passenger side of the car, hair blowing into his eyes as the wind kicked up around him. It was early, only seven in the morning, but this job waited for no one it seemed. The initial call had been made in at five and Yunho had been awoken to Jongho’s sleep heavy voice, saying he was picking him up as soon as possible.

A soft swirl of anticipation had rolled though Yunho’s stomach when the words “another jewelry theft” had reached his ears. He was down in front of his apartment complex with two cups of freshly brewed coffee, all ready to go before Jongho could pull up and disturb Yunho's neighbors with his incessant honking.

Jongho himself stepped out from the driver side. His hair wasn’t safe either from the morning wind, but it didn't really matter, since it already looked like that when Yunho had gotten into the car. But, somehow, Jongho was able to pass it off as a stylish mess rather than lazy, something Yunho had never been able to pull off.

On the drive over, Yunho and Jongho had been informed on what the call in had provided. Apparently, sometime over the night, someone had broken in and stolen two priceless necklaces. The owner had been hysterical and hadn’t provided much information other than that they would have everyone’s head if someone didn’t show up to investigate.

Usually, they weren’t called in until after the initial police report pointed the case in their explicit direction, but all the indicators of the jewelry thief Yunho and Jongho had been assigned to were all there. It’d been almost exactly a month since the last theft and this thief had only taken a few pieces of jewelry, even if other, more expensive, items had been readily available to steal.

The only thing really off was that the address they had been sent was residential. That was very off course from their assigned thief.

But as they pulled into the neighborhood, Yunho couldn’t help but marvel at the ‘homes’ they passed. Some were modern in architecture, some more traditional. Mostly, they all stood as mansions of their owners individual tastes and Yunho had the stinking suspicion that this was probably one of the few places near the city that ridiculously rich people could build the palace of their dreams.

The ‘house’ they pulled up to was huge and grand, one of the largest ones that Yunho had seen yet. This one looked a bit more time worn then others they had passed along the way. It had been upkept magnificently, so it was hard to tell its age right away, but the seams of the place blended perfectly into the rest of the properly, an effect that only time could really achieve.

The front door was one of those that looked more like a castle entrance, where you had to step up a few stairs just to get to it. The driveway was so large that it housed all four cars that were pulled up easily, with room to spare.

As Yunho and Jongho ascended the steps, the front door opened to reveal a young faced police officer. The name tag on his vest identified him as ‘Kang Yeosang’, an officer Yunho had never met before. But that wasn’t too surprising, since they did have to drive quite a distance just to get here. 

A prim air radiated off him, his back impressively straight and not a single hair out of place. Yunho wouldn’t have been surprised if he heard that Officer Kang had grown up in one of the surrounding houses.

“Detective Choi and Detective Jeong?” 

Jongho’s lackluster grunt of acknowledgment was drowned out by Yunho’s, “That’s us!”

Officer Kang nodded briskly before pivoting on his heel, leading them directly up a grand staircase that the foyer of the house opened up to. “Please follow me.”

Yunho jammed his elbow into Jongho’s ribs, a hiss of, “It won’t kill you to be nice before ten in the morning,” barely making it past his lips before Officer Kang turned to brief them as they walked. Yunho blew at a stray piece of hair, impressed with Officer Kang's ability to seemingly overlook their crass behavior. 

“The initial call in was made at 4:57 this morning by the owner of the house, Ahn Jungsik. He had awoken to his alarm company phoning in to let him know that their system indicated two windows had been opened. We looked into it already, and apparently the power to the whole estate had gone down at 3:02 this morning and returned at 4:50. Only a few of the surrounding properties were affected by the power outage.”

Yunho took in the house as he listened. The news of the pinpointed power outage had been surprising the first time around, but now it was just another tick in the box that pointed this break in right to their jewelry thief. The walls of the house nearly towered over them and the hallways were lined with back to back paintings, only interrupted by the odd vase and pedestal. The place might as well have had the words “Rich” printed along the walls, it would have gotten the same basic point across. 

But Yunho did have to admit, the painting were much less an eyesore of a point.

“Have you contacted the security company yet?” asked Yunho as he made eye contact with a man wearing a large powdered wig. Its eyes didn’t follow as Yunho passed by the painting.

“Not yet,” said Officer Kang, “But Mr. Ahn has told us that the wiring for the system is original to the estate build and confirmed that he knew about the security risks of having such an old system in place, since it went down with the power outage.”

At this point, Jongho had pulled out a small notebook to jot down the info Officer Kang was providing, one that matched with the one settled in Yunho’s jacket pocket. Yunho had bought them the second he heard he was pairing up with Jongho for this case, the first one they've ever been paired for. Turns out that attending the police academy together wasn't a very strong argument as to why they should be assigned as partners until three years after the fact.

Jongho asked if Officer Kang could send over the security company’s contact information as they finally made their way out of all the winding hallways and into what only Yunho could describe as a ballroom. Maybe that’s what its intended purpose had been back when it was originally built, because he couldn’t imagine such a room being made for anything else.

The walls climbed even higher than the hallway's did and the room didn’t have a support beam in sight. It was huge, so big that it could house a large gathering easily. The wall that faced out to the well manicured gardens below were nothing but floor to nearly ceiling windows. 

The house must have been expertly designed, since the windowed side faced south, to never get the direct beams of the rising or lowering sun throughout the day and overlooked the massive gardens that were housed behind the place.

There were a few police officers still milling around, along with the crime scene investigators. Yunho took note of the one person not in either a uniform or coveralls, who he assumed to be Mr. Ahn. The owner of the house was still in flannel pajama bottoms and speaking loudly to two blank faced police officers.

As they walked in, Officer Kang handed them a pair of blue latex gloves. Yunho put them on as he watched two people dust down the expanse of windows. He didn’t envy that job.

“This is it,” announced Officer Kang as they stepped up to a glass case that stretched the whole length of the wall it was up against. 

Both Yunho and Jongho took the words for what they probably were, a dismissal. Jongho broke off from their small group to walk down the rest of the case while Yunho stepped up to where the obvious evidence sat.

In the dead center was a hole in the glass, it’s edges ragged while hairline fractures spindled out into the rest of the glass. The hole was just large enough to safely reach in and out of without fear of cutting yourself on the sharp edges. 

Yunho took the time to take out his notebook, quickly jotting down initial observations. There were three crime scene tags placed in the case, two sitting where there were two empty spots in the case, assumed to be where the missing pieces of jewelry used to sit. The third sat next to a small glass disk, which sat a bit haphazardly in the case, half on top of a necklace that sat to the right of the missing center one. 

Yunho took in the rest of the case, nearly filled to the brim with necklaces that shined no less brightly then the rest they sat next to. There was no piece noticeably lesser and Yunho jotted down a note to request all the details regarding the rest of the jewelry that had been left.

“As far as Mr. Ahn could tell, there were only two things taken from his personal collection, which are the two necklaces missing from the glass case,” provided Officer Kang as Yunho overlooked the scene.

“Does the owner have photos of the necklaces that were stolen?” asked Yunho to Officer Kang, who had been standing just a few steps away.

“Yes, I’ll go grab them.”

Jongho returned from his lap around the room, pages of his notebook already full.

“Thoughts?” asked Jongho. 

“Definitely our guy, for sure,” started Yunho as he adjusted a glove to sit more up on his wrist. The standard size the police provided were always on the small side for him. “M.O. is all the same. A controlled area power outage in the dead of the morning, only taking a few jewelry pieces.”

“This one is a bit different though,” started Jongho as he stared down at his notes. “The thief is evolving. They’ve never hit a private residence before.”

“They probably have a buyer already lined up.”

“Why do you say that?” asked back Jongho, but he was already writing the idea down. It made Yunho smile. Jongho was nothing if not thorough.

“They changed their target from low end jewelry stores to a private residence, which is a risk but probably worth the reward if someone is already laying out a price. And I have a suspicion all the pieces in here have a pedigree, so info on this collection is probably out there on the internet. Maybe our thief is making a name for themselves in the black market and has started to take requests,” theorized Yunho as he cast his eyes over the rest of the jewelry that was still in the glass case. “And the hole’s cut directly above the center necklace, indicating a specific goal. Plus, nothing else besides the two necklaces were taken, even though the paintings are more accessible,” said Yunho, talking through his initial thought process.

“Let alone the fact that our guy seems to only have eyes for jewelry anyways,” muttered Jongho. “What about the second necklace stolen then? Maybe the buyer wanted both,” said Jongho, now leaned over the case to get a closer look at the empty spots.

“Then it would make more sense to cut the hole to sit between the two,” rebutted Yunho. “A last second decision, maybe? They were doing random pickings before and sometimes habits die hard,” threw out Yunho.

“Maybe,” acquiesced Jongho as he squinted at the glass disk in the case before writing down Yunho’s idea. “I talked to the guy working on the windows. No fingerprints on the case and none so far on the windows. So, was most likely wearing gloves.”

This time, Yunho took his turn to write that down, but it was expected. Their jewelry thief had worn gloves at the last two break ins and just made sense for a premeditated crime.

“He said the break in was clean too, nothing broken or forced. But he said the window the thief took out of this room used to lead to a long since torn down fire escape. And, get this, it’s the only window that opens in here. Which means—”

“Our thief had prior knowledge of that,” concluded Yunho just as Officer Kang returned, presenting two newly printed photos. Yunho took them with a nod and a thanks.

They weren’t the best quality photos since they were printed out on just basic office paper, and when asked, Officer Kang confirmed that the original files were already emailed over to the office.

As Yunho took in the two necklaces, Jongho took a quick glance at them over his shoulder but didn’t linger.

The first photo was probably from when the necklace was first acquired. The necklace hung off a red velvet mannequin bust, to show off its natural shape when it hung off a neck. It was an intricate necklace, filled to the brim with diamonds. At the top corner of the photo was the word ‘center’ scribbled onto it.

Yunho turned his attention to the second photo, the word ‘left’ written on this one. It could almost be described as simple in comparison to the center necklace, but was no less ornate. A large emerald hung off a gold chain, settled in a jewelry box this time. The photo didn’t really do it justice but Yunho knew it gleamed just as proudly in the sunlight as the center necklace would have.

“We’ll have to ask Mr. Ahn about where anyone else might have access to what was in his collection,” remarked Yunho as he made a note before folding and tucking the photos away into his pocket. “How about you, Jongho? What are you thinking.”

“Maybe it was an inside job. A maintenance hire or someone who worked the power lines around here," said Jongho as he looked over his notes, “Would explain how they knew about the fire escape window and the power outage. They would know Mr. Ahn's collection too if they worked in the house,” explained Jongho. Yunho wrote that down in his notebook, making a note to ask Mr. Ahn about anyone who worked on or in the house.

Jongho hummed as he looked over his own notes, probably looking for holes or ideas on what else they would need while they were still here.

Yunho put his own away as he turned back to the jewelry case. It housed fifteen other necklaces, not a different piece of jewelry in sight. And Yunho had to admit, Mr. Ahn definitely had good taste when it came to this part of his extensive collection of ridiculously priced eclectics.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think you were living vicariously through this cat burglar with how much you obsess over the jewelry,” said Jongho from behind Yunho.

“I’m not _obsessed_,” stressed Yunho, but he did take note that his eyes didn’t quite want to wander very far from the shiniest objects in the room. Which was right where they should have been, reasoned Yunho to himself.

“Just saying, I haven’t seen you this invested in a case since we first got hired. Is there something you aren’t telling me, Yunho?” Jongho’s tone was light, definitely playful but Yunho still shielded away from the teasing. It wasn’t that Yunho was hiding anything, per se—

“Maybe I'm enjoying the break from the lowlifes we are usually assigned to,” pouted Yunho, finally able to turn his back on the glass case.

“Thievery not evil enough to be done by lowlifes?” asked Jongho with a raised eyebrow, pen poised just above his notebook from where he had been writing in it.

Yunho turned back to the glass case. All fifteen of the necklaces gleamed back at him, even though none of the early morning sunshine was able to reach them. Even just the low artificial lighting of the room was enough. 

“It’s a far cry from murder," murmured Yunho. He took in the look Jongho sent him before tagging on, “But a crime's still a crime.”

Jongho seemed to have taken that as good enough, since he finished whatever he had been in the middle of writing. One last look over his notebook and Jongho snapped the book shut. 

“They're sloppy,” concluded Jongho. “If they really are moving onto bigger jobs, it’s just a matter of time before they leave hard identifiable evidence behind.”

Yunho turned to take in the whole expense of the room, from its grand windows and wide array of paintings and sculptures to the crime scene workers as they slowly worked around the room, all the way to Officer Kang, who had relocated to Mr. Ahn’s side. Mr. Ahn seemed to have finally finished whatever he needed to say to the officers and was now impatiently tapping his toe as he stared over to Yunho and Jongho, probably only kept at bay by Officer Kang.

“Sloppy wouldn’t be the word I’d pick,” concluded Yunho.

“Yeah? And what would you call it?” asked back Jongho, but this time around, his tone had leaked a bit of something into his words. Yunho wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it definitely wasn’t his usual business tone when asking for a rebuttal.

Yunho hummed as he took in the ragged piece of glass that still laid inside the case. “How about, circumstantial competence.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jongho’s tone dipped a bit, but Yunho didn’t take it as unacceptance. More like he wanted to see the angle that Yunho was seeing.

“Like, the actual glass case break in was a bit messy and probably done with a tool they had bought off the internet. But on the other hand, they had known the ins and outs of this building. They even know how to cause black outs wherever they go.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that. But I’m not ready to give this guy more credit where it's due, though. Having 'circumstantial competence' is only going to get them so far before they leave behind something of substance. Like hair or blood,” muttered Jongho, who Yunho could tell was getting frustrated at the lack of damning evidence.

But both Yunho and Jongho knew that the more places their thief hit, the more likely they could narrow down their suspect pool and the more likely their thief was to screw up.

Yunho chewed on his lip at that thought. 

“Come on,” said Yunho as he patted Jongho’s back. “Lets not keep Officer Kang and Mr. Ahn waiting any longer.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An Update!! *Confetti*

Two months and two more break ins had gone by and Jongho was starting to get antsy.

Jongho paced the length of his and Yunho's connected desks, sheets on sheets of suspects and evidence and contact information and responses scattered atop both of them. The corner of the police report of their latest break in caught on Jongho's pants as he walked by, ruffling the rest of the papers as it latched and released. "They're learning too fast."

Unlike how they initially had hoped, their thief didn't let their small bout of greed latch on. The last two break ins had returned to their original hits, low security and low end jewelry stores that only required simple lock pick skills to bypass once the electricity to the store had gone out.

"We should look more into the history of the two necklaces taken from Mr. Ahn. That hit's been the only outlier when it comes to this guy," said Jongho just as his pacing brought him to pass behind Yunho's chair.

Yunho took a sip of his coffee and thought on that. "Maybe that had been our thief's end game, and now they realized they could just keep making good money off the low risk training rounds."

Yunho watched as Jongho nodded along to that as he pulled out his notebook to write that down. The spine on it was now broken and the front cover's corners were starting to curl. He watched Jongho make two more laps around their desks before reaching out to grasp lightly at Jongho's wrist, pulling him to a stop.

"Hey. It's okay," placated Yunho. "What's got you so worked up about this anyways? Sure, it's dragging out longer than we thought, but there’ve been harder cases before."

Jongho flopped down into his chair at Yunho's words, scrubbing his hands over his face then up into his hair, pulling his hair back with it.

"It's not so much the actual case I'm worried about," muttered Jongho as he reached out and downed the rest of Yunho's coffee. Yunho raised his eyebrow at that, but Jongho was back to sorting through all the papers on their desks, picking out ones that covered their initial information collected on Mr. Ahn's necklaces.

As if Jongho had a premonition, Yunho was called to the Captain's office that afternoon. Yunho still wore his usual smile when he entered, but it strained at the corners. Getting called in like this was unusual. They already had their weekly briefing with her earlier that week and usually these kind of meetings weren’t done individually.

"What can I do for you, Captain?" asked Yunho as he sat in the chair opposite.

"I'd just like to go over the outline of your jewelry thief case again," answered the Captain lightly, but Yunho noticed that her shoulders were held stiff, even when she lazily leaned into a more relaxed posture in her chair.

Yunho pressed on like normal, debriefing her on all that had been shared earlier that week, but tacked on the new development of looking back into Mr. Ahn's break in, since it was starting to be the only thing off compared to the rest of their thief's hits.

The Captain nodded along to that as she looked over her copy of the case.

"Good work, as usual," said the Captain. It was the usual dismissal, but Yunho knew there was more to come. Her shoulders hadn't yet left their tense angle. "Now, how are you and Detective Choi? This is your first case together."

Yunho's previously lax spine straightened at her words. "Great. We bounce theories off each other well."

The Captain started to nod along to his words even before Yunho was done speaking them.

"I thought putting you and Jongho together on this would have been the right call, with your background and his efficiency making this a cut and dry case," said the Captain, words just a trace away from a sigh.

Yunho stared forward, willing his body to stay relaxed. There was a heavy pressure in the room after that, as if even the silence itself was waiting for the missing words that were left unsaid. It was easy for Yunho's to fill in the blank.

_"Maybe that hadn't been the right call." _

After Yunho closed the Captain's door behind him, he willed his stiff spine to relax, shaking out his arms and shoulders from the tension that had built up, no matter how hard he had tried to keep it at bay. He glanced out towards the main office and his gaze easily found Jongho's over the top of all the desks and computers and people in between. Watched as Jongho bit his bottom lip before quickly looking back down to all the information that spread thin over their desks.

At this point, Yunho was starting to get antsy.

\---◈---

Yunho sat in his ratty old four door, parked on some side street down in the south east end of the city. He had stopped and picked up a coffee from a corner store around midnight, but it had gone unfinished and tepid in the hours it sat forgotten in the cup holder as Yunho tapped a random beat onto his steering wheel.

The car radio was silent, but a little portable one sat in the passenger seat, letting out the odd static jump at random intervals, reassuring Yunho that the thing hadn't died sometime in between him turning it on and now. Yunho looked out the front of his car and watched as a small group of girls passed by from the main road, bunched together and laughing at something one of them had on their phone.

"Power outage. Eight square meter range. Between Euclid street and Rosewood lane along Camellia drive," cracked an automated voice over the radio. Yunho perked up at that, his back popping in two different places as he straightened up, but returned to his slouch when he remembered that was mainly residential housing. Most likely not their thief's doing.

Yunho chewed on the inside of his cheek as he reached over and pulled his phone out from where it wedged itself between the cup holder and his cold cup of coffee. 2:52 in the morning and less than half of his phone battery left. It wasn't bad, but he had forgotten his portable charger at home, which meant it wasn't going to get any better anytime soon.

It had been around a month ago that Jongho had been able to wrangle both the IT department at the station and the local power company to collaborate and create this automated radio line. Luckily, it hadn't been too hard of a sell, since the power company already kept track of all their power outages online. All they really had to do was allow IT access to their personal information lines.

And, thankfully, the power company agreed without much of a fuss. They wouldn't have been able to force them to do it, since this was a relatively low priority case, along with the fact that this was basically just an extracurricular activity Jongho had jumped on.

Jongho and Yunho were able to narrow down that most of the outages outside of the one to four in the morning range were to be ignored, along with any that happened too far out from the main city center. 

That had been the easy part. The hard part was trying to convince a patroller to actually make their way over to check the area when an outage contained the correct criteria.

So tonight, Yunho took the radio line on a field trip. 

It was during lunch break, as Yunho chewed on a candy bar that the thought struck him. Why not just go out on him own? Chase this guy down the old fashioned way? It probably would have been easier and more fulfilling than the verbal fight he and Jongho had to have with literally every officer who claimed they were too busy to check out the scene.

But the second it had come to mind, Yunho dismissed the thought as he took another bite. They had way too unreliable source information for him to go traversing around the city in his antique of a car, wasting valuable gas and already sparingly available sleep time, just so he might finally feel like he was making some sort of progress on this case. 

But only a few hours later, Yunho was fidgeting in his chair loud enough for even nice, quiet, cupcake baking Hyerin from records to send him a judgmental look as she made her way past and to the copy machine. The thought nagged at him, intrusive and counter productive to the point that Yunho had actually written the same sentence four times now. Yunho finally mentally conceded to his self imposed wild goose chase, just so he could get some work done. Proving to himself that it really was a bad idea along the way would be just an added perk, a reliable way to know that this thought would never resurface.

So here was Yunho, at nearly three in the morning, sitting in his ratty old four door on a side street out in the south east end of the city, waiting on a report that probably wasn't going to come because he wasn't mentally strong enough to shut himself up until proven wrong.

Yunho rubbed at the corner of his eye, stretching the skin as he dragged his finger down his face. So far, it'd been a dull wait. He usually would have passed the time on his phone, but he always felt a bit queasy if his phone was too low on battery. He'd rather just sit it out then risk it dying.

Right as everyone was leaving for the day, he had half a mind to actually invite Jongho along on his pseudo stake out. It would have helped passed the time, the silence instead filled with jokes and pastimes of their time together in the academy.

But Jongho probably would have just reiterated the facts that Yunho already knew, that this was just a huge waste of time, and Yunho knew he would have had that lecture coming if he asked. So he sat here alone, letting his mind wander as he watched a lone man walk past from the main street. 

Maybe Yunho had read that one meeting with the Captain wrong. It wouldn't have been like the Captain, who was usually pretty understanding when it came to cases. As long as she knew you were taking care of business, she let you have free range without someone breathing down your neck.

Yunho's hands wandered to his steering wheel, to where a bit of the soft cover was starting to peel off. He picked at it unconsciously.

But even the Captain had higher ups she had to answer to. Maybe there was something more going on higher in the ranks as to why she was suddenly putting more pressure on this case.

But even if that was the case, it wasn't fair of her to directly correlate their lack of hard suspects with his and Jongho's competence as partners. Yunho thought the Captain would have thought that too, especially since Yunho knows he nor Jongho had been negligent with their work and thought it showed. If anything, Yunho found himself drawing conclusions and making strides he never thought he would have without Jongho at his side.

The fact that they had personally known each other for five years now could have been the downfall of other, lesser driven men than he and Jongho. But, if anything, Yunho felt like he was thriving off their partnership on this case. It wasn't their fault that their thief was meticulous and had the means to tap into the city electricity grid at will.

"Power outage," sparked up his radio. Yunho breathed out a sigh of relief, his fingers stiff when he unclenched them from his steering wheel. He hadn't even noticed he had grabbed it in the first place. "Ten square meter range. Between Citrine street and Azurite street along Spinel boulevard."

Yunho's heartbeat jumped at that. Those streets were familiar and in the dead center of a shopping district, around a twenty minute drive west from here.

Yunho fumbled for his seatbelt as his pulse kick started into his throat. Rationally, Yunho knew that this probably wasn't their thief as he pulled out from his spot. There was absolutely no need for his body to flood adrenaline into his veins. But his gaze flicked to the clock on his dashboard and it read 3:07.

Everything was right. This really could have been his thief.

Twenty two painstakingly slow minutes later, Yunho made it to Spinel boulevard and was pulling up to Azurite. He hung a quick right and parked off in one of the available meter spots. As he stepped out of his car, he saw that the road along Spinel was dark, all the street lights down with the power outage. 

Slowly, Yunho closed his car door behind him. For all his rushing over here, his body suddenly felt like his joints were full of molasses. Treading lightly, Yunho made his way to the main street sidewalk. Here, the buildings were nothing but shops. They sat cramped up back to back, even on top of each other.

And even though most of the shops here had long since closed up for the day, the odd group of people still picked their way down the road, using it as a pathway as they made for their destination. Yunho watched as they bustled down the street, making it a point to not loiter in the dark patch the power outage had caused. A couple made their way past Yunho as he headed farther into the dark patch. "I really hope this isn't affecting the club," said the girl, quiet in the late night and dark surroundings.

Just a few streets over was a busy area, full of nightlife and late night restaurants, which explained the few people still milling around. It seemed odd to Yunho, if this really was their thief's doing. Usually they hit up safer options, ones with less foot traffic, but maybe they were running out of better options. Maybe they were getting bolder, spurred on from their long streak of successes. But also, maybe, this was just a false alarm.

Yunho pulled his jacket tight against his body, protecting himself from the chilly early morning winds as he started down the line of shops. Each and every shop Yunho passed by was pitch black as he glanced into them. Tonight was a moonless night, leaving only the barest hint of stars to accompany him.

Yunho had almost missed it. Somewhere, deep in a spot of his mind he didn't like to acknowledge often, he fleetingly wished he had missed it. But Yunho had turned his head to peer down the alleyway, trained to check every last place, even though the last three he had passed on the way here had been nothing but trash dumps and gutter let outs. 

But in this particular alleyway some shops had somehow squeezed in, store fronts nothing but a canvas awning over a door. Even then, Yunho couldn't even tell there was a jewelry shop settled halfway into the alleyway until he took the few steps in himself, pulling out his phone's flashlight to counteract the pitch black this alleyway was soaked in. It was then that Yunho was finally able to read the name of the store, 'Minhyuk's Fine Jewelry'. To the left of the front door was a small window that boasted the riches it held inside.

Yunho chewed on his lip as he took everything in. Even to his untrained eye, Yunho could tell the security on this place wasn't anything spectacular. The canvas on the awning was ripping at the seams and there wasn't even a cage along the window, all it's jewelry still out on display. At first glance, the store looked untouched by any malicious hands.

But this was too much of a coincidence and his experience as a detective wouldn't let this one slide. Everything added up and there was no doubt in Yunho's mind. His thief had planned to hit this store tonight.

Yunho took one more quick glance around with his flashlight, taking in the chipping paint on the front door, the deep puddles that gathered at the very end of the alleyway, the person who had just passed by the alleyway entrance, a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.

Adrenaline floored its way through his blood stream, strong and insistent as he fumbled with his phone, turning the flashlight off as quickly as he could. Once the alleyway had returned to black, Yunho let out a hiss of a curse, low under his breath as he turned on his heel and rushed to the entrance of the alley. Yunho ducked his head out, keeping the majority of his body hidden from the main street as he took in the backs of a couple, stumbling and laughing at something to each other, only a few store fronts down from where they must have just passed by.

With a small sigh, Yunho recollected his thoughts and took in the bigger picture. He had been so caught up in his head, the thrill of his first solid lead and the admittedly surprising aspect of actually finding a jewelry store in the dead center of this power outage had clouded his thoughts and actions. Jongho would have been disappointed.

With that, Yunho took a deep breath, letting the chilly air cleanse him from his lungs out. He took the few steps he needed back into the alleyway and to the store front, taking a more controlled look around. It didn't bring about anything of suspicion, just a few fliers discarded along the wall, boasting a newly opened club a few roads down. Which meant only one thing; his thief hadn't arrived yet. 

Yunho pulled out his phone from his back pocket before exiting the alleyway with sure steps, making his way back down the road.

Yunho had the station on speed dial and quickly relayed what he had come across when they picked up, along with a request for at least two undercover cars to come stake out the street. There was only mild defiance from the officer on the other end, but luckily they seemed too bored to really give what Yunho was saying too much of a fight.

Yunho had hung up just as he made it to the second alley he had passed on the way there. It was dark here too, just as dark as the alley he had just left, but that was exactly what Yunho wanted and needed. A good hidden and close by place to wait.

Here, Yunho let his back hit the brick wall, letting it take the majority of his weight as he closed his eyes, head rolling back to thump up against the wall behind him.

This wasn't the first time he had screwed up. Disappointingly, his first year as a detective had way too many of those. But over the years, it had become easier not to make mistakes as his training became instinctual. The rule book and the procedures had seared their way so deep into Yunho mind that they left impressions, deep and ingrained. It had gotten to the point that Yunho didn't even have to overthink his next course of actions when working.

Maybe that was why he had slipped up tonight. He had become complacent in his own training.

Or maybe it was because he was desperate. Maybe the reason he hadn't even thought to call the station first was because time was of the essence the second his radio had sparked to life with its message. Maybe Yunho had thought that already being out on the streets meant that he would have gotten there faster than any patroller he had called up, who would have taken their sweet time making their way over, the night shift already used to his and Jongho's false alarms.

Or, maybe, Yunho's need to get their thief had trumped everything, absolutely everything.

But at the end of it all, it was all excuses. The bottom line was that Yunho had screwed up and because of that, their thief might already be running for the hills at the sight of Yunho and his flashlight checking out that jewelry store front.

No matter how much this case intrigued Yunho, no matter how much he enjoyed being able to marvel and profile and look over jewels and gemstones. None of that mattered in the light of actually closing this case. In getting the Captain to stop breathing down his and Jongho's necks. To have the chance to be paired up again for future cases. Yunho repeated that to himself a few times, just to make sure the thoughts wouldn't leave his head.

It was the faint sound of rustling that pulled Yunho back out of his head. He cracked his eyes open, body still and stiff as he listened. When the noise didn't happened again, Yunho pulled himself together and stepped away from the wall. His phone buzzed in his hand, so he looked down, ready for an incoming call from a patroller to let him know they were in position. Instead, he was greeted to the fifteen percent battery life warning instead.

Then, from deep in the alleyway, came the rustling again. 

Yunho had only made it a few steps into the alley when he zeroed in on someone farther in the alley, crouched down and facing a wall. Yunho couldn't make out much besides a vaguely human shaped blob, his clothes mainly black, thinly layered and well kept. Probably just some guy who ended up here on their way back home, rather than someone planning to spend the night here.

Yunho took a deep breath and approached the guy.

"Hey," called out Yunho as he reached into his jacket for his badge, "Police, I'm going to have to ask you to move along."

The figure jumped, springing up a bit at its knees before settling right back into its crouched posture. From this distance, Yunho was finally able to make out a distinctly male build, wide shoulders and straight body lines. The guy had his head down low, his hair falling to cover his face.

Yunho sighed when it became obvious this guy wasn't going to budge on his own accord. Whether the guy was intoxicated or just acting dumb, Yunho couldn't tell. Drunk or not, he knew he couldn't have a bystander hanging around. And he needed to deal with this quickly, so he could get back to position, so he can keep an eye out before the undercover patrollers could show up.

"Hey, I said police. You need to leave, it's late. Go home," said Yunho. At this point, he pulled out his phone to turn on the flashlight. Maybe it'd spook the guy into moving on.

"You don't look like a cop," spoke up the guy, who finally turned his face up from the floor.

"Yeah, well." Yunho gestured to his badge vaguely.

Yunho watched as the guy's eyes traced over his badge I.D., his eyes clear and focused. Without really thinking about it, Yunho angled it so the guy could see it better.

Now that this guy's head wasn't buried into his knees, Yunho was able to make out that guy was _young_. Definitely not a teenager anymore, but probably younger than Yunho, who still got the odd baby joke around the office, even though Jongho was officially the office youngest.

His hair was a well kept dyed blonde, without a trace of roots showing. His outfit looked athletic, the pants shaped to his legs and jacket thin. Yunho wondered as to how this guy could have ever thought this outfit would have kept the early morning chill off his skin.

As Yunho's eyes roved over the guy, a twinge of something jabbed into his sternum. This guy wasn't drunk or high. He wasn't homeless. He wasn't some kid out past his curfew. 

So just why was this perfectly normal guy doing hiding out in the back corner of some alleyway at the crack of dawn?

The guy finally straightened up, height shorter than Yunho's own, but his build showed that he was probably well past his teenage years like Yunho suspected. Yunho watched as the guy reached down to brush away at what little dust he could have collected on his legs from his crouched position. The movement was jerky and stiff, too deliberate in its actions to be natural.

"Sir," said Yunho, voice hardened with as much authority as he could muster through his swirling thoughts, "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me."

"I'm just going to head out," said the guy, head down as he swerved around Yunho and towards the entrance of the alleyway. His tone was casual, but Yunho could spy the stiff set of his shoulders and strained muscles, as if it took everything in this guy to calmly walk away.

"Sir," said Yunho again, this time with finality as he reached out an arm to block his path, "I'm going to have to insist."

"Are you arresting me?" hissed the guy, words harsh and tight as he whirled around to face Yunho. His eyes were intense and pierced straight into Yunho, a force behind them Yunho couldn't even begin to describe.

"What?" automatically asked Yunho, caught off guard by the sudden hostility. The guy took the opportunity to push past Yunho's arm and briskly walk away, quickly making it to the mouth of the alley before turning left, in the opposite direction of the jewelry store.

Yunho chased after the initial shock of the mood swing wore off, but even those seconds of hesitation were too long. He guy was gone.

Yunho stared at the empty street until his phone rang, alerting him that the undercover patrols had made it into position.


	3. Chapter 3

“What happened last night?”

Yunho looked up from the spiral that formed on the surface of his coffee to Jongho, who was sitting down at his desk, clearing away just enough papers to give his own coffee cup a place to rest.

“Huh?”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me, I heard about you phoning the station at like, four in the morning, which was, what?” Jongho made a show of looking at his wrist, even though he never wore a watch, “Five hours ago?”

Yunho blinked hard, trying to pull through the daze he had settled into ever since he made it back to the station. 

When he had arrived, it had taken him roughly ten minutes to even remember where his assigned parking spot was, his head filled with a thick fog. It was disorienting, to say the least. Even though he almost never drove to work, it really shouldn’t have taken him so long to remember. A good night’s rest probably would have done him wonders. 

But he hadn’t headed home after last night, or, rather, that morning. Couldn’t.

“The radio said there was a power outage,” said Yunho. Even he could hear how out of it he sounded. 

“Yeah, like it does every night. The city’s huge, there’s power outages all the time, we’ve already gone over this,” explained Jongho dismissably.

“Yeah.” Yunho stared down at the stacks of papers on his own desk, only in marginally neater stacks compared the ones on Jongho’s desk, “Yeah, but—” How was Yunho even going to begin to explain? That he just couldn’t sit around anymore? That he just had a _feeling_?. “I was already out,” glossed over Yunho, but he didn’t miss Jongho’s look at his non explanation. “So I went and staked out a spot until there was a power outage that fit the criteria.”

“And one came up?” asked Jongho, one skeptical eyebrow raised, putting together the crumbs as Yunho provided them, “So you called the station to have someone go check it out?”

“No,” said Yunho with a small shake of his head “I went.”

“No wonder you look like shit,” grumbled Jongho. “You didn’t get any sleep at all last night,” concluded Jongho, already confident he was right. Yunho sluggishly nodded a confirmation. The few cups of coffee he had since arriving had helped, if only to keep Yunho in a zombified but functional state as he finished filling out his field report on what had happened.

Jongho stared at Yunho, his eyes sharp and piercing. They weren’t suspicious, nothing close, much more his usual skeptical curiosity there, with a tinge of concern at the edges. But Yunho knew how smart Jongho was, knew that he was exceptional, and that he really shined when it came to reading people. Yunho didn’t want to give Jongho a reason to use that particular skill on him, not now.

“_Fuck_, don't tell me you caught them?” wheezed Jongho as he jumped up to his feet, hands braced against the top of his desk, causing a few papers to flutter to the floor.

“No, no,” placated Yunho as he slowly shook his head. Jongho flopped back down into his chair, a hand coming up to rub at his eyes. “You should really clean up your desk, Jongho, didn’t you get a new assignment recently?”

Jongho grumbled as he reached down and colleted the papers, something about how Yunho wasn’t one to talk. “Then why didn’t you head home afterwards?” asked Jongho as he grouped together a few papers, tapping them on his desk so they straightened into a neat pile.

“I think,” started Yunho before he leaned forward in his chair, allowing his stiff back to finally relax out of its tight cord, but only just. “I got close.”

“Really?” asked Jongho, who was back to his usual skeptical curiosity now that the initial excitement of thinking this was a case closed had seeped out of his system, “How so?”

Yunho licked his lips, a swirl of emotion causing his stomach to seize a bit. “Everything was perfect, the set up, the power being out, the jewelry store,” breathed Yunho.

Jongho looked up from his organizing at that. “There was actually a jewelry store? Where the outage was?”

“Yeah,” said Yunho as he pursed his lips, “Dead center.”

“Damn,” breathed out Jongho, “so what happened?”

Yunho swallowed down what little spit he had in his mouth. It made his throat click, mouth sticky from too much coffee. 

“They didn’t show.”

There was a heavy silence that followed. Yunho couldn’t bring himself to meet Jongho’s eyes, much more willing to wait out the silence than see what Jongho looked like in that moment.

“They didn’t show,” repeated back Jongho, tone flat but there was something more to it. Maybe if Yunho didn’t know Jongho as well as he did, he would have missed it. He wanted to believe that the bit of doubt he heard was born from a benevolent place, one that didn't direct that doubt at Yunho and his work, but towards the thief himself.

“I called for back up the second I realized that it wasn’t a false alarm,” said Yunho, hoping that he didn’t come across as scrambling for an excuse. But even he could hear the desperation in his voice. And he was too tired to play the politics game with Jongho. “Right when I realized,” drawled off Yunho. He could see himself back in front of that store, could see himself lingering, even pressing up to the glass. “I called for undercover patrol to come stake out the place. It was only about a half an hour after the outage started. But,” Yunho looked down to his coffee mug, to the lukewarm liquid inside. He couldn't lift his face even if he wanted to. “He didn't show.”

There was another long silence that followed. Yunho could hear the faint sounds of the office around them waking up, as police officers walked through, as a phone rang on a desk a few over, but it sounded so far away. Guilt flooded Yunho’s blood stream. 

Yunho didn’t follow protocol. Yunho went and sat in a random corner of the city, listening to their makeshift thread at getting ahead of their thief. Yunho chased after that thread without calling for backup. Yunho rushed and rushed and then all the sudden he was exactly where he wasn’t supposed to be, in the open, in the dead center of the blackout, in front of a jewelry store. 

And Yunho saw him. Yunho saw _someone_. Someone who was hiding out where they shouldn’t have been. Someone who Yunho had just let walk away. There wasn’t anything he could have held him on, but it was _Someone_. Someone who shouldn’t have been there, unless they had a reason to be. And Yunho didn’t follow protocol.

Finally. After what seemed like hours and hours of scrutiny and being a let down and putting both their partnership and trust on the line. After having admitted to his lack of competence and omitting the fact that he _saw someone_. Finally, Jongho spoke up.

“Well,” said Jongho, then cleared his throat, “That’s that, then.”

Yunho finally tore his eyes up, only to see that Jongho wasn’t even looking at him anymore. He had his head down, going through the piles of paper on his desk, organizing them.

“We’ll catch him, don’t worry, Yunho. We don’t need fancy tricks, just good old fashioned detective work,” said Jongho, but his words rang with forced enthusiasm. It took Yunho longer than it should have for him to realize that Jongho was comforting him.

Jongho looked up and smiled at Yunho. It was a strong one, one that reached all the corners of his face. Yunho’s heart dropped. Jongho had so much faith in him, in them.

And Yunho was going to return the favor. They didn’t graduate top of their class for nothing. They didn’t gravitate towards each other and then grow roots in between each others in those trying times in the academy just because. They clicked, their friendship solid and built upon faith in each other's ability. Neither doubted the other back then, and Yunho…

Yunho was going to catch their thief. Yunho wouldn’t— no. Yunho _couldn’t_ allow this one night to get to him. This one screwup to affect them. The Captain already doubted them. The higher ups no doubt did. They were the last of them who couldn’t doubt their ability to work together, and if Jongho wasn’t going to, Yunho wouldn’t either.

Yunho turned to his computer, to the open police system, where he had just submitted his recount of the night. He remembered the details, almost startling so. Remembered the whole walk to the store, remembered just when he realized he screwed up, remembered doubling back and calling for backup.

And he remembered the man who was hiding out in the alleyway.

He knew the man could have been just anyone. Could have been there for a million and one reasons. He could have easily not have been their thief just as much, if not more, than he could have been. 

He didn’t let their thief walk away.

_He didn't let their thief walk away._

Yunho kept that mantra on repeat, until his mind was dizzy with it.

When his day finally ended, after kind words from Jongho, telling him he should go home, that there was nothing more for him to do today with him nearly dead on his feet, Yunho laid down in his bed and almost believed it.

Whoever that guy was, he was no longer of any importance to Yunho. Just some bum who had nothing better to do so early in the morning. Just a random guy who had strayed down the wrong path. Just some dude who thought himself important and quirky and mysterious who wanted to stir up some trouble with the cop who confronted him. He was anything _but_ their thief.

But as Yunho slipped into the dredges of his mind, coaxed down into a much needed rest, his mind unwillingly played back the encounter. Yunho saw the calm smile, saw the stiff set of his shoulders and saw his back when the guy shoved past and rushed away.

Yunho saw the panic that hung off him, saw him practically dripping with it.

\---◈---

“Detective,” spoke up the officer leading them around the crime scene. This time, the name tag spelt out ‘Song Mingi’, a tall man who looked a little too fresh to be leading a crime scene sweep. But his back was straight and his tone held the right amount of professionalism, a gleam of determination in his eyes to do well. Yunho knew that look well. “You might want to come look at this first.”

Yunho raised his eyebrow at that, when Officer Song motioned for specifically him to follow. Usually, even though Yunho had the advantage of height, police officers turned to Jongho first, who naturally held an air of leadership about him. Even though he was older, Yunho didn’t mind it. He knew his eyes were just a bit too kind sometimes.

Yunho turned a skeptical look to Jongho, who just shrugged. It wasn’t like either ever claimed a role of ‘head’ on this case, since they defaulted to equals on all grounds. If Song Mingi wanted to assign Yunho as the head this time around, then so be it. Yunho turned to pick his way around the shop, careful to not brush up against any cases or to disturb any of the crime scene investigators. He adjusted the blue latex gloves on his hands, the pair handed to him always just a size too small. Maybe he should start carrying around his own pair that he knew would fit. 

It’d been a month since the false alarm and the two of them had been trying to rework all the previous cases from the beginning again. Tried to pin down any connections, any people from multiple sites that overlapped. So far, nothing of note, past the ones who all attended a jewelry convention about a year ago, which Yunho had started to look a little more into. It was just last week Jongho proclaimed that he was going back to the very first theft they documented from their thief, while Yunho finished out the rest of the small connections they had found between the stores.

Now, they had a new one, their thief having struck again. This time, it was in a higher class jewelry store, nestled deep into a popular outlet mall. It was an ambitious target, but apparently their thief had no problem even with its higher class security and more populated area. The blackout on this hit was later than usual, nearly hitting daybreak.

“How is he able to knock out the power as he so pleases? I feel like that would be harder than the actual break ins,” muttered Yunho as they followed Officer Song deeper into the store.

Jongho’s eyes followed along cases and displays as they passed by them, taking in all that he could manage. “Maybe they aren't working alone.”

“What?” asked Yunho, suddenly floored at Jongho’s nonchalant accusation. Had they ever even considered? “Why do you say that?”

“These jobs are getting too big, too ambitious. You can’t just tap into the city’s power on a laptop while waiting around the corner, all while doing so under the limited time it takes him to get in and out. We should really start considering there being at least two people,” said Jongho with a wrinkle in his brow. Yunho knew it pained him just as much as it did Yunho for only now considering this idea so late in the investigation.

Yunho swallowed around his throat at that. Turning their one thief into two didn’t change too much, since it was clear from past break ins that they had only been committed by one person. But it did broaden the possibilities of break ins if their thief was actually a two man deal. It would make sense though, to have one person in the field and one back at homebase. Made the window of work smaller and more easily handled. Turned their thief from a powerhouse capable of so much into two people specialized in different fields of work.

They really should have considered it sooner.

“Here,” said Officer Song as he stopped at the glass case that mainly functioned as a front desk. There were significantly less jewelry pieces over here. Just as Yunho was just about to ask as to why the trip over to here specifically, his eyes zeroed in on the small piece of paper that sat dead center of the case. Jongho must have noticed it the second Yunho had, since he let out a puzzled noise.

“Is this—?” began Jongho before quickly stepping up to the case.

“A note,” filled in Officer Song, “found here when we showed up.”

“But he’s never…,” trailed off Yunho as he leaned in next to Jongho so he could read the neat and precise lettering. The sheet of paper was small, a perfect square and only marginally larger than a sticky note.

To Detective Jeong,  
I’ve always enjoyed a game of Cat and Mouse.  
But I’d prefer to play the role of the Cat.

‘It’s addressed to you,” said Jongho, his tone awed. Yunho’s own mind was reeling, swimming in the mass of information this simple note provided. They could trace the paper, see where this could have been bought from. They had handwriting, straight from the thief. All these thoughts rushed into Yunho’s mind, trying to overshadow the most obvious fact of them all.

That he knew _his name_.

“He knows we’re chasing him?” choked out Yunho once he got the mass of emotions that had clogged up his throat in check.

“He knows _you’re_ chasing him,” corrected Jongho, not unkindly, just stating facts. Yunho looked to him and while he was still grasping, scrambling to come back up for air, Jongho had since surfaced and even made it to land. His eyes were clear, his back straight and his notebook already in his hands. The edges on the cover were starting to peel apart from itself.

“Has Crime Scene processed this yet?” asked Jongho.

Officer Song nodded. “They have, but we thought it best to show you two before finishing it up and submitting it to evidence.”

Jongho nodded in thanks even though his eyes hadn’t left his notebook, quickly copying down the note’s contents.

“Why now? Why start to leave actual evidence behind? Is he trying to flaunt the fact that we can’t catch him?” asked Yunho at lightning speed, his mind still swimming, drowning.

Vaguely, Yunho heard Officer Song mutter a, “Sounds more like they’re flirting to me.”

“Yunho,” said Jongho, forcing Yunho’s mind to finally breach for air. And with it, a cold chill rushed through his blood stream. How. How? How could their thief know? Were one of the people they questioned connected to their thief? _Was_ it someone they questioned? There were a few people Yunho had questioned recently without Jongho, could it have been one of them?

“You know what this means, right?” asked Jongho. Yunho looked to him and saw a sight that surprised him. Saw the excitement sparkle in Jongho’s eyes. “It means we’re getting close.”

Later that night, while Yunho tossed and turned, that damn note and its three lines haunting him to the point of insomnia, Yunho remembered it. Remembered the man from the alleyway, and how he had lingered on Yunho’s badge for such a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really late and short update!! The next scene is turning out to be both _really long_ and difficult to write. I was originally trying to have that scene in with this chapter but the length begs to differ so... Yeah.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, even this small amount!


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